Trout: We can still make Grand Final!

DEBUTS are always a difficult occasion, especially when you make them against the reigning champions. But Huddersfield Giants’ Owen Trout made his look easy on Friday night.

A succession of hard-hitting tackles against St Helens was supported by a superb try, a try that shocked the man himself.

“I was a bit surprised. I ripped the ball and all I could remember was everyone shouting at the ref that there were two players in the tackle,” the 20-year-old told the Examiner. “But I thought, I’m better off just carrying on running and I think you can see in my face, when the camera zooms in after I’ve scored, I look a bit gormless like ‘what’s going on here?’

“When I was running, I half-looked and thought ‘why is no one chasing me here? Has the whistle blown?.’

“I was fairly happy with my own performance on Friday but, obviously, at the end of the day, it’s a team sport and you want to do what you can to try and get the win for the team.”

Coming up tomorrow is a clash against local rivals Leeds Rhinos and for Trout, it is a chance to impress against the club he left in the winter, a chance he and the Giants, who should be buoyed by players returning from injury, are keen to take.

“It’s always good playing against your old club, you’ve got a point to prove and, hopefully, I will able to put on a show for everyone,” said the forward.

“I feel like, because we have got a few more players back, we’re just building the intensity into the training sessions.

“It’s making huge competition for spots in the squad, so it’s good and we will be ready.”

Five senior players – including Ashton Golding, Aidan Sezer and Darnell McIntosh – are in the squad to face Leeds along with new signing Chris McQueen who could make his Super League debut.

A victory against the Rhinos would show that the Giants are still contenders this season and as we approach the business end of the season, that’s exactly what the squad are aiming for.

According to Trout, their expectations of challenging at the top of the table remain unchanged and that even with speculation surrounding Simon Woolford’s future, the squad are committed to getting to their first Grand Final.

“We’ve all still got the same goal, to be as tough to beat as we can and to try and get as high a finish as possible and, hopefully, to get to the Grand Final,” he said.

“It’s always been the goal, since day dot when I came here, that’s always been the aim. We feel like with the troops we have got in the squad, we’re more than capable of getting there we just need to start putting those performances back on the pitch.”